May 3, 2005
Marta Metelko
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1642)
June Malone/Martin Jensen
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 256/544-0034)
RELEASE: 05-116
NASA ENGINEER READY TO 'BRING THE NOISE' OF LIFTOFF
As Space Shuttle Discovery gets closer to launch, the din of
preparations across the country is music to veteran engineer David
Martin's ears.
"There's been a hush over our work for two years," Martin said. He is
manager of the Solid Rocket Booster Project Office at NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala. "The excitement has
been rising for some time, but now it's like someone is turning up
the volume everywhere you go," he added.
Martin expects the rising swell of excitement to culminate later this
summer in the roar of Discovery's big engines. The noise that will
mark the start of STS-114: Space Shuttle Return to Flight, and launch
the next phase of America's exploration of the cosmos.
Martin's organization at Marshall oversees the Shuttle's powerful,
reusable Solid Rocket Boosters. During the first two minutes of
launch, the 149-foot-tall, 12-foot-diameter boosters generate 85
percent of the thrust needed to lift the Shuttle to orbit. The
boosters separate from the Orbiter and drop into the sea for
recovery, when their task is completed.
Martin's team handles every element of the boosters, from design,
certification and testing of all components to post-flight recovery
and refurbishment.
The team managed some important Shuttle modifications during the past
two years. One particular upgrade worth noting is the safety
modifications to the "bolt-catcher." This protective mechanism
captures half of the forward-attach-point connecting bolt during
booster separation from Shuttles the External Fuel Tank. Martin's
team also conducted testing and recertification of the boosters'
External Tank attachment rings and aft struts, which fasten the rear
of the boosters to the tank.
Born in Omaha, Neb., Martin is the son of a former U.S. Air Force
pilot, who met his wife while stationed in Japan during the Korean
War. Martin's two older brothers were born in Japan. Martin and his
younger sister were born after the family moved back to the U.S. His
father left the service to become an Apollo-era NASA contract
engineer. Martin suspects that's where he picked up his early
awareness of America's space program.
In 1981, during his second year of engineering studies at the
University of Alabama in Huntsville, Martin enrolled in NASA's
Cooperative Education Program. He became an engineering trainee at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla. He went to Florida just in
time to be a firsthand witness for STS-2, the second Space Shuttle
flight.
"That's when I fell in love with NASA," he said.
Martin received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in
1983 from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. After graduation,
he joined the Science and Engineering Directorate at MSFC as an
electronics hardware design engineer. In 1985, he was appointed as a
chief engineer for key MSFC, managed microgravity experiments, tests
conducted in the near-vacuum of the Space Shuttle environment.
He went back to KSC in 1987 and spent the next decade there as a
project engineer and Shuttle element team lead, providing on-site
management of hardware for the External Tank and the Solid Rocket
Boosters. He coordinated the transfer of booster components from the
prime contractor to KSC, while also providing oversight to the
design, manufacturing, processing, integration, test and post-flight
recovery of the boosters at the Cape.
In 1997, Martin returned to MSFC as technical assistant for the Solid
Rocket Booster project, leading efforts to merge the project into
NASA's consolidated Space Flight Operations Contract. Managed at
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the contract handles all
Shuttle hardware processing and integration prior to flight.
Continuing to assume greater responsibility within the organization,
Martin was appointed technical management representative on the Space
Flight Operations Contract in 1999. He accepted his current position
in 2002.
Martin has received numerous NASA awards. In 1998, he received the
Silver Snoopy Award, a special honor bestowed by NASA's Astronaut
Corps on men and women who provide key support for the Space Shuttle
and human spaceflight missions. In 1995, Martin received NASA's
Manned Flight Awareness Award, one of the highest service honors
awarded by NASA.
For more information about STS-114: Space Shuttle Return to Flight,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight
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